Jim Rodenkirch - K9JWV - NAQCC # 1974
Jim at his home station and operating portable from Sand Mountain.
Jim was licensed since 1956, first off as a Novice and then Conditional; that was a long time ago. Jim let his license expire some years after that but re-took the exams and thoroughly enjoys being back into Ham Radio. Jim,currently, is into QRP and operate CW about 98% of the time; the other 2% is SSB but only in an emergency! His main rig, currently, is a Ten Tec Argonaut V 516 and he own an Elecraft K1 (160 meters through 15 meters) for back up and /p operations. His latest antenna system is a 43 foot vertical, three 25' top loading wires dropping down at a 45 degree angle,60 elevated radials - thirty at lengths of 50 feet running east and west and thirty at lengths of 25 feet running north and south - a 160 meter loading coil that has the antenna resonant at 1830 kHzm when switched in via a relay controlled from the shack,and an LDG Z11ProII autotuner at the base.
Jim mantra is: "QRP is" and evidence of his adherance to that mantra can be found in the fact that he has WAC, WAS and DXCC (140) with a variety of QRP rigs and wire antennas;all of that in the past 4 years! His total DXCC count, over the years, while employing simple wire antennas is 265. He especially enjoys operating on the lower bands, 40 through 160; he completed QRP WAS on 160 meters on 22 February, 2012 and QRP WAS on 80 meters on 22 April, 2012!